All Forum Posts by: Nazz Wang

Renting out rooms to different tenants in the same property? Why not just divide the utilities per person?

I agree with everyone that I use a combination of text, email, phone and written notices, depending on the nature of business. Most of it is done with texts. When I am asking a favor I call, and when I don't want to make it awkward, usually a problem with the tenant I need to address or to raise rent, I mail an official letter.

I personally do not go for general inspections. For me, general inspections tell me thing I can see and don't tell me anything I can't see. So I don't like to sped money on that. 

 if I am concerned with something that I am not confident about, I will get an expect opinion. Though I always have the plumbing checked out if the property is being purchased at market price. If I am getting a below market deal, I factor in the costs of fixing plumbing into my purchase price. I always update the electrical in a new purchase regardless so I don't inspect that. If you think the foundation is funky definitely check it out.  Hope that helps.

make sure the title is clean too if they are offering a quit claim deed. 

Are the utilities separate? If they are not, which is a lot of the cases for at least water, I would definitely account for water bills. Also need grounds keeping, utilities for common areas if applicable. And vacancy. 

There are lenders who would do up to ten with Fannie. Just need to call around.

Spend your time to listen to all the podcasts!

Closed about 8 in the same local Russian-ran shipping / notary / lottery / mail boxes / money order location. Witnessed at least two verbal fights in front of me. Once a Russian lady who didn't speak any English insisted on having her money gram receipt before she paid for it, and there was a fight between the notary and the lady in two different languages, and they don't understand each other at all. 

Oh yeah I went to all these closings with my double BOB stroller and two young kiddos. Let's go stay-at-home-moms! Once I closed on 3 properties on the same trip. The old Russian Gentleman behind was so mad that he had to wait he started kicking my stroller.

The store looks like this. 

Awesome that you are thinking about it. Congrats.

Now, I think this is going to be a hard sale based on your terms. Would you put all your savings into one thing, and let a person who has never done it before run the show, on a TBD timeline, into a business you know nothing about, and only get 50% of profit? Or you can get your money, retire and sip margaritas on your ocean view front terrace?

What kind of return are you looking at? What are your numbers? What is your timeline? Do you have the time to do this? Maybe looking into doing to ground work for an experienced flipper for free will get you some experience and realistic expectations. I personally think real estate investing should be educated decisions and calculated risks, which would require experience, money and time. Otherwise it would be a gamble. Think twice before asking someone else to gamble with their retirement money.

@Amelia Kayes Awesome that you are thinking ahead and planning your financial future. Congrats on taking the most important step and getting started!

It has been done before. Do you have any plans on how you want to run your rentals? Are you going to buy locally and self manage? Are you going to use a property manager? Are you going to use an onsite manager? How does your numbers look? Most banks, as far as I know are skeptical about lending commercially to people without any rental experience, per se. And do you have a good size reserve fund? If something happens to a complex building that made some, or a lot of the units inhabitable, are you going to have money to invest in fixing it? I have seen many that didn't have enough of a reserve fund, can't fix up the units to be rented, lose rental income and becomes cash negative, thus losing more units because the units are inhabitable. It can be a vicious cycle, in the worst case scenario.

That being said, it has definitely been done before. Just like any investments, the best thing is to explore an idea, get some information on some real deals on the market now, do your numbers really carefully, talk to banks to see how much you can leverage, and do everything you can to really understand what you want to get into. Then you can make an informed decision for yourself. Have a lot of ideas but don't be afraid to toss an idea when it doesn't profit, and commit when it does. Do a lot of homework, and then do your homework again.

The first thing I would do is to put the tenants on my lease asap. Sign a new lease with them with all things written into it, about pet, utilities, costs, terms, etc.

Agree with @Joel Owens @Account Closed @Scott Weaner , why do you care? Allowing pets is yet another niche, and pet rent is nice. I charge $25 per pet per month, and told the tenants I will do a carpet cleaning at move out at their expense.

I have done it for a great price or in a competitive market. Yes I would get a rental lease signed plus deposit and market rent just like any other renter. Get everything on paper is the key. I don't think it is unheard of for people selling their primary. The sellers don't want to start moving until they know for sure the house is sold. Why Has it taken 45 days under contract and not closed? Are there any issues with financing? Those are the things the current owners might be worry about. At lease it wasn't a contingency for the purchase of their next home. That could take forever.